920 posts categorized "Autodesk"

02 March 2015

The invention of flight by man was one of this biggest changes to the last century as it changed the time people and goods took to get to distant places. Airliners have become indispensible in today's business and of course to get to our vacations on nice warm beaches (sounds really good right about now.)

Now with design technology advancing at a fast pace it is somewhat ironic that the cloud is playing a role in the design of modern airliners.

20 February 2015

In 30 some odd years Autodesk has had literally hundreds of products, and currently just over 100 active products. In those years we have seen many a creative name for a product. So for some fun, which product name/s were not actually a released Autodesk product?

16 February 2015

I love love love this free utility to modify, repair, and and work with 3D scanned data and even create 3D models from photos and a new bug release has been posted. Go check out Scott's blog post on what is in this update and how to get it.

10 February 2015

While not everyone was able to attend the creative art show at our amazing Autodesk Pier 9 office and workshop I am providing details on the packed and much talked about event. The Autodesk Artist in Residence (AiR) Exhibition was held at Pier 9 recently and included work by digital fabricators, fine artists, architects, furniture-makers, chefs, and many other creatives who have passed through the AiR program over the past year. While many in Pier 9 are Autodesk employees, we have many creative Artists in Residence working there and you too can apply to have the coolest office location in San Francisco on the Bay.

Fibonacci Zoetrope Sculptures Blooms designed by John Edmark

These 3-D printed sculptures, called blooms, are designed to animate when spun under a strobe light. The placement of the appendages is determined by the same method nature uses in pinecones and sunflowers. The rotation speed is synchronized to the strobe so that one flash occurs every time the sculpture turns 137.5º—the golden angle. If you count the number of spirals on any of these sculptures you will find that they are always Fibonacci numbers.

For this video, rather than using a strobe, the camera was set to a very short shutter speed (1/4000 sec) in order to freeze the spinning sculpture.

John Edmark is an inventor/designer/artist. He teaches design at Stanford University.

Take a tour of the Pier 9 Workshop!

04 February 2015

Current scientific evidence indicates the dinosaurs as we know them are all gone, but they left fossilized bones, tracks, and other traces behind telling the story.

Last week I was working on a project in Northern Arizona and found an exhibit of a sandstone that had actual dinosaur footprints on it on display outside the Glen Canyon Dam visitors center. In Utah and Arizona it is not unusual to find dinosaur footprints in rocks and sadly a recent amazing example located near Moab Utah was vandalized and lost forever. So how can we preserve these fossil records without purchasing expensive 3D scanning equipment? In this case I used my smartphone a iPhone 6 and its camera to capture a series of photos and then using the currently free AutodeskProject Memento and generated an accurate textured 3D model of the dinosaur's fossilized footprint.

So here you see the series of 40 photos I took of the sandstone fossilized dinosaur footprints.

Select to create a photo scene and upload and wait for it to alert you your model is done.

Here is the resulting highly detailed and accurate 3D textured mesh of the dinosaur footprint and available for export to OBJ, STL, and many other formats and uses.

Now there is a digital record of this footprint to preserve it, 3D print it, study it, or display it online or use as a digital prop in a 3D game or animation. All it takes is a camera and you can generate highly detailed and accurate textured meshes of almost anything and in higher detail that the 123D Catch app.

In Project Memento you have many tools to study the mesh, retopo the mesh, and so much more. You can also export and modify the mesh in Autodesk Meshmixer.

02 February 2015

MegaBots is finally on their way to San Francisco to start working on their next project, a new Humanoid Robot! You can get involved and win both Makerfaire Fame and some fortune by submitting a winning design for this challenge.

The challenge started February 1, 2015 and will run until February 28, 2015 so get busy and submit your entry. The winners will be announced March 7, 2015.

Prizes, Design Guidelines, and Contest Rules

Each winning entry will receive a cash prize of $2500.

Two Design Challenge winners will see their 3D concept art entries 3D printed and installed on the humanoid robot.

One Engineer Challenge winner will have their design built by MegaBots. Design will be live and up and running at the 2015 MakerFaire in San Francisco, CA.

30 January 2015

On this day January 30th, 1982, 33 years ago a small group of people held an initial meeting in Marin CountyCalifornia to organize what became Autodesk. They risked it all including all the money they could scrape together and it paid off for millions of people from employees, customers, partners, and investors.

A sincere thank you to John Walker and all the ‘deskers’ that followed in the founders and pioneers footsteps to this day as you literally changed the world, and still continue to 33 years later. There are not many high tech companies with this long of a track record except Adobe, IBM, Microsoft etc. but it is definitely a small club.

12 January 2015

If you are involved in 3D reality capture, 3D computing technologies or a 3D creative you want to be at this REAL 2015 event being held in beautiful San Francisco at the historic waterfront Fort Mason on February 25th and the 26th, 2015. There will be many industry expert presenters vendors covering a wide variety of topics. Reality capture like laser scanning is only one aspect. There is also a Synthetic Biology and Maritime track. There will also be a drone cage to fly UAV/UAS devices and I will be bringing my new 4k shooting DJI Inspire 1 with me.

The first ever convergence of the sensing, making and creative industries.

Join us at this unique cross-industry summit for two jam-packed days of cutting edge presentations, thought-provoking discussions, and interactive demonstrations, as we explore the convergence of the physical and digital worlds and the 3D technologies making this possible.

WHO

REAL is 500+ leaders and innovators — professionals from across industry, investing, research, and media.

REAL is the convergence of the professional 3D sensing, making & visualization industries.

REAL is both an exclusive executive summit & a world’s fair of cutting-edge 3D demos

REAL is real people, doing real-world work with reality tech.

REAL is Reality Computing.

WHY

From drones to autonomous cars, industrial robots to major engineering works, and game consoles to tomorrow’s mobile phones, 3D sensors are suddenly everywhere. And several decades after first grabbing headlines, VR and 3D printing are hot again, attracting billions in investment, and moving beyond early adopters to professionals. But it is the sum total, where sensing meets making, where big change is brewing.

While the ‘Internet of Things’ grabs headlines, a 3D revolution is quietly building.

26 December 2014

Each year Autodesk gives its employees time off during the holidays to spend with their family, friends, and whatever they wish to do at the end of the year. I have taken this time to re-charge my batteries and get ready for the new exciting new year 2015.

Here are some photos from my Week of Rest, but really it is a couple weeks of adventure and fun in the sun with good friends. I am posting more on my Instagram than this blog during my time off.

What if a CAD system could automatically generate tens, hundreds, or even thousands of design options that all meet your specified high-level goals?

It’s no longer what if: it’s Project Dreamcatcher, and it’s the next generation of computational design.

Dreamcatcher is a goal-directed design (GDD) system that enables designers to input specific design objectives, including functional requirements, material type, manufacturability, performance criteria, and cost restrictions. The infinite computing power of the cloud then takes over.

Dreamcatcher interprets design intent from the objectives specified by the designer and uses the cloud to create thousands of valid design options that meet the designer’s criteria, recommending the best-performing versions for further consideration. It’s not so much about developing a solution as it is about searching for and finding one. This is 180 degrees from the traditional CAD/SIM/optimize workflow.

But don’t worry, GDD doesn’t replace the designer—far from it. Project Dreamcatcher does the grunt work, processing and evaluating design tradeoffs at a speed impossible for humans. What it does do, however, is free up the designer to innovate and create—to move away from repetitive design tasks and calculations and instead focus on creative design.

This is cloud computing in its purest form; true computing rather than simple file storage. Previously only available to institutional and government-owned agencies with supercomputers, it’s now available to anyone.

Moving beyond the traditional design workflow that begins with geometry-based input, GDD instead takes the design problem as input, using evolutionary algorithms to generate solutions by mimicking the way nature accepts or rejects designs. This is particularly useful in manufacturing. Traditional software tools have been unable to adequately envision optimal solutions to the increasingly complex and highly dimensional problems found in today’s manufacturing space. Now, objects can be designed that optimally suit their function; objects that were once impossible to manufacture.

It’s a new workflow: a fusion of the designer, artificial intelligence, and the cloud. It’s Project Dreamcatcher—design’s next great leap.

07 November 2014

I finally caught up with the Autodesk #3DRV in beautiful Moab Utah and TJ and his lovely wife and smart young energetic son. Here is a brief post made from a cold early Fall Moab Utah morning of yesterday's adventures.

Yesterday we had an action packed day starting with me driving 4 hours from Salt Lake to Moab then immediately with TJ and his family taking the Autodesk 3DRV to Arches National Park to meet with National Park employees Mary and Karen.

I presented the awesome park employees with highly detailed 3D prints of the Delicate Arch that I had laser scanned with FARO about 2 years ago and took a great deal of work to combine all the billions of laser points and photogrammetry using ReCap Photo data to build a solid and accurate model and ultimately 3D print. The 3D prints will be used in educational programs at the visitor center and the arch itself. The staff of the Arches National Park were awesome and loved the 3D prints.

The 3D prints and digital model are the most accurate representation of Delicate Arch and represent a slice in time as the sandstone arch is always changing. I would love to scan again soon and compare the changes like what the bush on top and puddle of water on top of the arch are doing in erosion and changes to the structure.

We hiked up to the real Delicate Arch. I took time to educate TJ's son Josh about the plans, geology, and of course fun stories and getting him to overcome his fear of standing on the edge of cliffs made of sandstone and appreciating the natural formations in Southern Utah. I even showed ancient petroglyphs in the sandstones hard mineral patina exterior from the Native Americans hundreds of years ago in the case of the Ute Indian which you can spot as they had horses which only existed in North America a couple hundred years ago from Spain and he sometimes odd petroglyphs of the ancestral pueblans from a thousand years ago in Arches National Park and in the Colorado River Parkway.

We flew my UAV quad copters in the Colorado River Parkway and enjoyed the views.

I just slept a couple hours in the 3DRV and am headed for my next event about 4 and a half hours away to the North while the 3DRV makes its way towards the South and the Grand Canyon and ultimately Autodesk University 2014 in Las Vegas December 2nd, 2014 at the Mandalay Bay. With only a couple hours of sleep in the 3DRV and no playing with the FARO scanner and Stratasys3D printer in there as I was tired I have to hit the next event a few hours away.

I really enjoyed my time with TJ an his family and the Autodesk 3DRV and can't help but think we need to do this again.

I will write more and post more edited photos once I get back home next week!

04 November 2014

This Thursday morning November 6th, 2014 I will be meeting up with the Autodesk 3DRV and TJ McCue in the mountain bike and Jeep capital of the world, Moab Utah.

I live about 4 hours from Moab and will make the drive early for an action packed day of visiting with the fine people of Arches National Parkand giving them a 3D printed Delicate Arch created from a laser and photogrammetry scan, hiking up for a visit to the beautiful natural sandstone Delicate Arch, seeing some ancient petroglyphs, flying some quad copters in the desert, doing some 3D captures using Project Memento and ReCap Photo, and exploring Moab.

03 November 2014

Most know us at Autodesk as the folks that develop AutoCAD, Revit, 3ds Max, Maya, Autodesk Inventor, and over 115 or so other products, but we are into the non CAD fields as well. We pride ourselves as being highly diversified, and in conversations I often get the reaction "what the "#%@!, really?"

We at Autodesk are not only into the Maker movements, 3D printing open source platforms, helping scientist capture coral in 3D for research, capture historical monuments like the USS Arizona in 3D, but also into things like 3D printing virus to attack cancer in research by our Autodesk Distinguished Researcher Andrew Hessel. Yes, Autodesk is supporting research in-house to cure cancer. Cancer sucks big time and everyone wants to cure it, but who would think a stereotyped CAD software company based in Marin County California is actively researching solutions to kicking cancers evil microscopic ass.

"A genetic engineer at Autodesk says he can 3D print a virus that one day might be able to attack cancer cells."

Autodesk deep in it's roots back about 33 years ago we were a group of talented hardware and software hackers. To me it all makes sense we would not only hack software, hardware, but why not hack cells and other hard challenges.

Let's all applaud Andrew Hessel's research and those like him that WILL remove the C word from our vocabulary as I don't want to get any more calls or emails that I lost another someone close to me to cancer.

I lost an amazing good friend and colleague last year to cancer #PeachStrong, and many more loved ones and customers along the way like Celeste, Scooter, and my grandfather.

We at Autodesk have now placed a cool 500 LED cube in the Autodesk Gallery. This cube was developed by an intern and responds with lighting up pulsating LED lights and effects to hashtags on Twitter.

Huge thanks to the Autodesk intern and also Autodesk Social Media maestro Dan Zucker for showing me the cube when they placed it in the Autodesk Gallery on October 16, 2014.

Description of the Project Social Lights Cube:

This cube of 500 pulsating LED lights depicts live-streaming online interactions: social media mentions of Autodesk generate visual sparks. The resulting data- driven rhythms exemplify the Internet of Things - Information sent through the Internet, on billions of devices, triggering physical actions. Each mention of Autodesk and our products stimulates a pulsing blink of the cube's lights in various colors. Through hashtag commands, you can choreograph unique patterns.

The description reminds me of my mind blowing powerhouse colleague Mickey McManus who is currently a Visiting Fellow in the Autodesk Office of the CTO. Yes, we are lucky to have him for some time.

Instructions:

Send a Tweet that includes mention Autodesk or Autodesk products or generate patterns using the hashtag #AutodeskGallery and #Cube plus a combo of one pattern and one color keyword listed below:

31 October 2014

If you are a student, teacher, or school, you can now get Autodesk software free and without limitations or watermarks. There is no catch or fine print or restrictions or tricks on use in school just the treat of free Autodesk software.

I invite everyone to help spread the word to your families, alma mater, friends, students, schools, and educational connections. Let them know that Autodesk now provides students, teachers and schools with free access to Autodesk software: 3-year licenses of 80 titles of the exact same software that our commercial customers use.

Students, teachers and schools worldwide can download the software FREE atstudents.autodesk.com. No trick, just the treats!

29 October 2014

Boom!AU2014 almost here. Presenters, you better have your materials and sessions done and rehearsed as thousands are counting on you.

The annual Blogger Social event will be held again this year, but bigger & better, and on Wednesday night. More details to be posted on this blog on how you as an active blogger or social media community member covering Autodesk products can get one of the limited golden invites. I hope to meet you at AU 2014! -Shaan

I was underwater a great deal of time or without Internet which explains the rare silence on the blog. I have been working on this project for a year and many dives, many amazing photos, incredible data sets, and lifelong memories. It is truly an honor to be involved in this project and also even more of an honor knowing I have a relative on the USS Arizona.

We should have all the data needed now to finalize the 3D digital model of the the USS Arizona and provide an accurate digital model to be used for preservation, education, study/research, and create a 3D print.

10 October 2014

Two of my amazingly talented Autodesk Office of the CTO colleagues Evan Atherton & Heather Kerrick presented a 3D printed creative memorial plaque to the US Navy & Marines crew and Captain Robert A Hall. Jr. of the USS AmericaLHA 6 last night in the Autodesk Gallery. The plaque had a 3D print of the starboard side of the ship mounted on a walnut wood base with custom metal standoffs mounting glass etched with text and 2D wireframe drawing of the new ship. The USS America is officially being commissioned tomorrow in San Francisco. The USS America was designed using Autodesk's AutoCAD and SSI's ShipConstructor software technology.

07 October 2014

Hooray! I have been anxiously awaiting this for years. Effective today, Autodesk provides FREE access to our software to students, teachers and schools around the world.

If you are an engineering school or teach CAD drafting or design classes, or a computer lab facing tight budgets, you can now get the software free without limitations. There is no catch or fine print or restrictions on use in school.

In the past we at Autodesk have provided software free to students, but not the schools but this has been slowly evolving first here in the US with the US ConnectED program with US President Obama where Autodesk committed $250 million, and now this effort and free access to Autodesk software is being rolled out worldwide for all students, teachers, and schools.

I invite everyone to help us spread the word to your families, alma mater, friends, students, schools, and educational connections. Let them know that Autodesk now provides students, teachers and schools with free access to Autodesk software: 3-year licenses of 80 titles of the exact same software that our commercial customers use.

Students, teachers and schools can download the software FREE atstudents.autodesk.com. No catch, watermarks, or fine print.

30 September 2014

Can animation be made as easy as drawing? Well Autodesk Research is not letting challenges like this or letting dragons lie. Kitty is a Drawing Tool for Interaction Authoring.

From the awesome Autodesk Research team: "Hopefully you're familiar with Project Draco, our answer to the question: Can animation be made as easy as drawing?

We've discussed Draco here on the blog and have a video overview of what we were showing at this year's SIGGRAPH conference in Vancouver to catch you up."

"We've set up the scene as you would in Draco with steam and splashing particles coming from the pot. In the following image you can see that we have a simple node graph that gets overlaid on the picture. This helps reduce UI while keeping the events and relationships in context."

I can now say I have seen a real physical Autodesk Spark 3D Printer in person at Autodesk Pier 9 office. The Spark 3D printer is one of the top things on the Christmas list to replace my older ABS extruding 3D printer.

I can't wait to print an accurate 3D print of the world famous Delicate Arch structure on it as it is a real test of not only reality capture and computing but 3D printing due to the complexity of geometry.